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WWE Champion Triple H vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin in a No Holds Barred match at No Mercy ‘99 One of the best compliments that I could ever give Triple H was that he was able to have great matches in different eras with two completely distinct styles. Triple H is a great wrestler. He’s not excellent at any one thing, but he’s very good at just about everything. If you look at the match he had with Undertaker at Wrestlemania XXVII, you see him at his best when it comes to telling a story. That moment where he looked down at the Deadman, despite being goozled, and shook his head as if to say, “No way, man…not this time,” is a classic example of that cerebral quality that Jim Ross always touted during his matches. Rewind the clock back to the series of matches he had with Jeff Hardy in 2007-08 and you’ll see him at his best in the basic elements that make pro-wrestling great, what with the adaptation to Jeff’s moves and the subtle variation of the spots from one match to the next, as they built to their ultimate conclusion. When you look back to 1999, Triple H was already a really good wrestler, but his first match with Austin showed his prowess in brawling. Austin’s style was to brawl all around the ringside area and into the stands and onto the announce tables before finally ending up back in the ring for about 5-10 minutes of actual wrestling. I never personally liked that style. I thought it got quickly over done and that’s why you don’t see nearly the amount of 4-star ratings coming from that era as you do nowadays. I do, however, commend Trips for what he did on nights like No Mercy ’99, when he and Austin went out and had the standard Attitude era style of match but delivered a strong enough performance to where you can look back on it fondly 12 years later and think, “That was probably one of the better overall matches of that year.” (CMV1 rating - ***1/4) Soon after October ’99, Austin found out that he needed to finally have that neck surgery stemming from the piledriver gone bad with Owen Hart over 2 years prior, so they booked an angle at Survivor Series ’99 where someone ran down Austin with a car and put him out of action. The year 2000 really was Triple H’s coming out party. He ushered back in a style that I much preferred – one that took things away from the stands and back into the ring – and he subsequently teamed (figuratively) with The Rock to create undoubtedly the best year of the Attitude era, in terms of the in-ring product. When Austin returned in the fall of 2000, the landscape was a little different. The WWE had a deeper roster and the transition was beginning that would lead to the end of that era. Rikishi was coined the man that ran down Austin, but it was later revealed that Triple H was behind it all. Imagine John Cena being run down and Randy Orton being revealed as the guy who did it. Almost impossible to imagine a story like that right now since the times have changed so much, but back then, something like that could happen your suspension of disbelief just got turned up the extreme. Triple H vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin in a No-Disqualification Match at Survivor Series 2000 The No Mercy ’99 match over a year before the return match had been a Stone Cold match to a “T.” The Survivor Series ’00 match was a Triple H match. Austin did work in the usual brawling around the arena, but it was far better worked within the confines of what Trips was trying to do. It’s kind of funny that throwing someone into the guardrail was about as common as a standard punch back then. Austin’s act was growing stale in a hurry, to some degree, so they really had to turn up the tension. He did a good job of putting over how much he hated and wanted to beat the living hell out of Triple H while still staying within his entertaining character, even sitting down for a beer at one point after busting Trips open with a ring bell. The story told was very well done. There were not any near falls to speak of, but the momentum went back and forth until they went to the over-the-top finish. The one rule in this match was that no one could interfere, but the Radicalz (led by Benoit and Guerrero) attacked when Austin and Trips brawled to the backstage area. Trips fled to the parking lot and jumped in a car. Benoit lured Austin to the lot, but the Stone Cold disappeared into a forklift. Austin used the lift to get hold of Triple H’s car, hoisted it up about 20 feet in the air, and dropped it while a pre-recorded byte of Triple H screamed, “Holy shit!” before the car smash on its top end. (CMV1 rating - ***1/2) After the incidents with the cars, the WWE began to tout this rivalry as the most personal in history. Looking back further than 2001 and back to the present, I’m hard pressed to come up with an argument to the contrary. When you have two guys that do things that could have legitimately killed each other, that kind of takes the cake. Injuring someone is personal…trying to kill someone is more than that. I’m not sure it can get bigger than that, but then they cost each other chances to become WWE Champion (icing on the cake). It turned out to be one of the more over-the-top storylines that I’ve ever seen, but those latter months where they were just beating each other up and costing each other the title and Stunning and Pedigreeing each other’s wives/best friends, respectively…that was old school, standard, basic wrestling feuding and I dug it… Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Triple H in a Three Stages of Hell match at No Way Out 2001 Sometimes it just takes a few tries before everything falls into place and such was the case with the third match in this series. The first stage was a standard match that would have seemingly favored the Game. Triple H did a tremendous job working over both Austin’s knee and surgically repaired neck, playing off the initial parts of the storyline. Austin getting the win in that fall was surprising given that standard wrestling was Triple H’s strength. The second stage was a Street Fight that brought Austin’s brawling to the forefront. They did the signature Austin brawl throughout the ringside area and crowd and used as much furniture as they could find to punish and bust each other open. Austin backdropped Trips through the announce table and slapped him across the face with a full beer can. Triple H’s trusty sledgehammer came into play during the climax of the second fall and allowed him to even the score at one apiece. The third and final stage was a cage match. Both men were beaten and bloody and had been wrestling for nearly a half hour by the time the cage match got underway. Austin kicking out of the Pedigree and Triple H kicking out of the Stunner were two amazing near falls that brought the house down. I always thought it was an underrated move to have Trips win this match, as it would’ve seemingly put him as the lead challenge to Austin after Mania (had they not turned him heel). People say that Rock vs. Austin at Mania X-Seven a month later was the defining match of the Attitude era and I agree with that sentiment wholeheartedly, but I think this 2/3 falls match has to be considered the strong #2 right behind it. In fact, I’d consider the two matches to be the two defining matches of the Attitude era, with Rock-Austin just slightly ahead of it. (CMV1 rating - ****1/2) Despite nearly killing each other and having one of the most personal rivalries ever, these two inexplicably joined forces after Mania X-Seven. It was stupid and made no sense. I don’t care what you stand to gain, you don’t join forces with your most hated enemy. It just doesn’t happen, especially given the context, but that’s pro-wrestling for you. The fact of the matter was that this was one of the defining feuds of that era and it deserved another look…
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